According to Jo Beynon, in her ‘This-n-That’ column of the Cumberland Times-News, of all Cumberland’s personalities, perhaps one of the most fascinating was Captain J. Philip Roman. He had earned the title of Captain in the Spanish American War. Philip Roman was born of patrician parents. His father was the founder of the Second National Bank and Phil Roman was an adventurer, a socialite of the first rank, a hale fellow well met, and one who feared neither man nor devil. He was also one of the first to operate fast automobiles and motorcycles in the city and the first to experiment with his powered boat ‘Naptha’, a launch on the Potomac River and the C&O Canal. Later in life, he decided that he would learn to fly.
The Cumberland Times News reported the following:
On November 16, 1935 Capt. J. P. Roman received his aerial pilot’s license and at the age of 65 is one of the oldest fliers in the state. Capt. Roman was a man of means and since he had become interested in aviation, as is often done nowadays, an individual will purchase an airplane and then lease it back to a fixed base operator or aircraft company to use the airplane for commercial purposes. Capt. Roman had purchased a Stinson Junior airplane, a five place cabin monoplane that was to be used in the Johnson Airlines. This was one of the first airplanes to arrive in Cumberland with a self-starter. Previously Curly Bill Johnson had taught Mr. Roman to fly in an OX-5 open cockpit Waco 10 bi-plane.
Floyd Johnson related the following story concerning Capt. Roman. Curly Bill Johnson and Capt. Philip Roman were on their way to Baltimore in the Stinson Junior and Roman rolled the window down, which could be done in the older Stinson and Fairchild airplanes, in an attempt to discard a cigarette. However, the burning cigarette was whisked away from him and he thought it had lodged between the rolled down window and door jam. Needless to say, this caused much consternation and Johnson stated to Roman, “If we do get this airplane down and live, I am going to kill you!” They did land okay and apparently the cigarette did go out the window. With the Nitrate dope and cotton fabric used on airplanes of that day, the craft would have quickly burned.
Another story related by Floyd concerned a shipment of ‘hatboxes’. Mr. Roman appeared at his hangar with a pickup truck load that appeared to be hatboxes for ladies apparel. Mr. Roman informed Floyd, and his father standing nearby, that Mr. Roman’s wife was in Atlantic City and just had to have her hats. As the two men were loading the Stinson cabin airplane with the hatboxes, one of the hatboxes accidentally dropped to the ground, with the sound of breaking glass and the appearance of a white clear liquid with an odor of whiskey.
Floyd also related that the trees on the railroad end of the east-west runway at Mexico Farms Airport had grown to a height so as to interfere with the landing approach to the west runway. As had been done before, a volunteer work party of pilots removed the offending trees by cutting them down at the base. A short time later, Jerome ‘Bogus’ Johnson, Floyd’s father, received a legal notice informing him that he was being sued for destroying several prized chestnut trees and other valuable trees worth $25,000 by the owner of land adjacent to Mr. Johnson’s farm. This was an astronomical sum in 1936 and Bogus was very upset. Mr. Johnson appealed to Mr. Roman, who was then Prosecuting Attorney for Allegany County, for advice about this matter. One Saturday morning, Mr. Roman knocked at the door of the Johnson residence and said, “Mr. Johnson, do you want to remove any more trees from the approach end of the west runway?” Bogus said, “No, I do not”, and with that Mr. Roman departed. Along with the borrowed Allegany County Roads surveying crew, Mr. Roman determined that every tree Mr. Johnson’s work party had removed was on Jerome Johnson’s property, thereby resolving the legal suit Bogus had feared.
Captain Phillip Roman with an early model Fairchild 24.
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Wings Over Cumberland 